My relationship with God requires a great High Priest.
4 So Moses followed the LORD's
instructions, and the whole community assembled at the Tabernacle entrance.
5 Moses announced to them, "This is
what the LORD has commanded us to do!"
Exodus 28:1-3 "Call for your brother, Aaron, and his sons, Nadab, Abihu,
Eleazar, and Ithamar. Set them apart from the rest of the people of Israel
so they may minister to me and be my priests.
2 Make sacred garments for Aaron
that are glorious and beautiful.
3 Instruct all the skilled
craftsmen whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. Have them make
garments for Aaron that will distinguish him as a priest set apart for my
service.
When we think of the word priest we think of a messy occupation that would
gross us out if we had to do it today, we think that priest are no longer needed and we are so thankful
that we don't need to provide an
animal sacrifice
anymore. But the work of the priest is much more than that, we need to expand
our thinking of who a priest is and what they do so that we can see why we still need priest
today.
The history of God's priest in the Bible shows us that the qualifications for the job has changed many times. The first time that the function of a priest is mentioned is way back in the
garden when God shed the blood of animals to extend forgiveness and to make clothing for Adm and Eve.
Outside of the garden a little
later Cain and Abel would be acting as their own priest and then Noah, Abram,
Isaac, Jacob and also Job were all making sacrifices to God. First the Bible shows us individuals functioning as
their own priest and then later it shows us the head of the family doing this
work. (Genesis 8:20, 12:7, 13:4 26:25, 31:54, Job 1:5).
After
God chose a people
for himself he gave them rules about how to
live a new way to please him that would make them different from the rest of the
world. They would have a new worldview, a new civilized way of loving God and their neighbor, new food rules and also new rules about how to worship.
God's rules for worship began with the worship leaders back in the book of Exodus, next he gave them his rules about how to worship, including the sacrifices in Leviticus 1-7, and now they are ready to ordain the first High
Priest and the first priests that will serve under him.
The preparations for the ordination:
- Washed (Leviticus 8:6)
- High Priest Garments (Leviticus 8:7-9)
- Anointing (Leviticus 8:10-12)
- Priest Garments (Leviticus 8:13)
The offerings for ordination:
- Sin offering (Leviticus 8:14),
- Burnt offering (Leviticus 8:18)
- Ordination offering (Leviticus 8:22)
- Wave offering (Leviticus 8:25-29)
God's priest are ordinary men that need to be forgiven and cleansed before they can put on their priestly
garments. The priest must be sanctified by the Sin Offering and the Burnt Offering
before their special Ordination Offering and Wave Offering. These rituals would last for seven days and Aaron and his
sons would have to stay at the Tabernacle the whole time.
The fact that Aaron was chosen as the first High Priest is an amazing symbol
of God's mercy and grace, as the leader of
God's people while Moses was away, Aaron led the
people to idol worship. But instead of being disqualified, by God's grace he was
elevated to a position of honor that he didn't deserve.
Malachi 2:5-7 “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name.6 They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin. 7 “The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies."
God's chosen people (the nation) would have a chosen people (the priest) to be the ambassador between God and his people. They will lead them in worship, teach them truth and govern their everyday life. The priest would focus on helping the people maintain a clean and holy life that would please God and bring him glory that would be seen among the nations.
There Is A New High Priest
Hebrews 9:11-12 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood-not the blood of goats and calves-he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
As I said earlier in this post, the priesthood has changed, it was
originally the work of the individual or the head of the family, later it became
an official occupation of a few men but now it has changed again. Because of Jesus the
priesthood that God initiated in Exodus and Leviticus is now obsolete.
Jesus would die as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, but he wasn't just
the perfect lamb that covered our sins, because of his sacrifice and
resurrection from the dead he is now our ultimate High Priest that was chosen by God and because of his perfect obedience he is now interceding
for us at God's throne in Heaven.
If you know your Bible a little bit you may wonder "how can Jesus become the
High Priest if he is from the tribe of Judah? Didn't the priest come from
the tribe of Levi?"
Melchizedek and the Priesthood of Christ is a great essay that explains how and why Jesus replaced Aaron's
lineage. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the High Priest, he met all of
the credentials, but he came from the tribe of Judah through the lineage of
the kings. (Psalm 110:1-7, Hebrews 7:11-28)
God's People Serve As Priest
1 Peter 2:9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
All of God's children are a chosen people that live as members of a holy nation that serve as royal priest so that the people that are not a part of this holy nation can see the goodness of God.
I think that it is a shame that most of us think about ourselves when we
hear that we are priest or we hear about the priesthood of the believers. We
think about the fact that we don't need to go through another human in order
to talk to God or to receive forgiveness. But if we are true to the original
priest in the Old Testament and apply their job description to ourselves
then we will see things differently.
Direct access to God is just one of the benefits that we have as priest that
are working under the great High Priest.
We are supposed to be:
- A set apart people that live to serve God and others.
- A light to the dark world around us so that they can God's goodness.
- A blessing to our neighbors and family, helping them to know how to please God.
- A multiplying people, making more and more priest to serve God and others.
- An encouraging people, nudging others to good works and holiness.
Salvation is a free gift but, as you can see from this list, it is so much
more than a fire insurance policy. Obedience to God's commands should be a
natural reaction when you understand how tremendously ugly your sin is next to
God's holy standard. If you don't feel an urgency to live God's way then you
may not be his child.
Titus 2:14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.1 Peter 1:15-16 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy."
The proper Old Testament priest were radically different people, holy, cleansed and anointed for service. Shouldn't we be just as committed to the same high standards?
The Old Testament commands to be holy are repeated in the New Testament so why don't we consider holiness as a requirement in our own lives?
RELATED ARTICLES
In the Beginning God Created a Priest
(crossway.org)
Were Adam and Eve Priests in Eden?
(bibleproject.com)
10 Things You Should Know about the Priesthood of Believers (crossway.org)
